Solicitor Mark Lewis claims less well-off would not be able to sue under government's proposed curbs

Mark Lewis, who is representing the Dowlers, behind, says many allleged victims of phone hacking have relied on 'no win, no fee' deals to hold News International to account. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Without "no win, no fee" agreements the News of the World would still be appearing on news stands this Sunday, according to the solicitor who has led the legal challenge against phone hacking,

Mark Lewis says government proposals to curb conditional fee agreements (CFAs) made between lawyers and their clients pose a serious threat to any chance of the less well-off obtaining justice in future.

Many victims of phone hacking have relied on CFAs to bring claims for compensation against the News of the World and hold the Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire to account.

"If 'no win, no fee' agreements did not exist," Lewis told the Guardian, "then the News of the World would come out again this Sunday. Those people who have ordinary wages and ordinary savings won't be able to afford to bring claims.

There are 3,800 people who have potential claims against newspapers for phone hacking, according to Sue Akers, the Metropolitan police's deputy assistant commissioner, he added.

Lewis has been asked by more than 50 people to pursue phone-hacking claims, probably largest number of cases gathered by any single solicitor. "Many papers, including the Sun and the News of the World, have been having a go at 'greedy lawyers', saying they want to get rid of no win, no fee agreements. Their agenda has been to get rid of them. But the real issue is about access to justice," he said.

Some personal injury claims may have been an abuse of the CFA system, Lewis concedes, but that should not be grounds for reshaping it so drastically. "In some ways we are not only throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but losing the bath as well."

Under the Ministry of Justice's legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bill, which began its committee stage in the Commons this week, the ability of claimants to recover costly insurance premiums and their own lawyers' success fees from losing defendants will be abolished.

Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, has said he is determined to combat what he has termed the "compensation culture". His bill will force claimants to recover legal expenses from their own awards for damages. Clarke insists the switch will force potential litigants to think about costs when launching cases.

Opponents of the bill warn that the changes will render the cost of seeking redress through the courts no longer financially viable. Combined with a £350m reduction in the annual legal aid budget, they fear it will restrict public access to justice.

Lewis's plea has been backed by the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan. "The government's proposals to make it more difficult to get a no-win-no-fee arrangements could severely damage the ability of individuals with limited financial means to take action against the nefarious practices of large corporations," the Labour MP said.

"By limiting access to justice for those who can't pay hefty legal fees upfront, this government could be restricting the ability of victims of phone hacking to seek redress in the courts."

Lewis was the first solicitor to secure a settlement from the News of the World for phone hacking in 2008.

He has been at the heart of the investigations into the scandal. In 2005, he was acting as solicitor for the Professional Footballers' Association when News of the World journalists began targeting the PFA's chief executive, Gordon Taylor, mistakenly believing they had unearthed a story. It was Lewis who spotted where the error had come from. "I realised they were getting their stories through phone hacking," he said.

As he later told a Commons select committee: "It was not a true story, it was a misunderstanding of a message which had been left on the phone, so how you would misunderstand a message left on a phone in any other way is completely beyond me … In order to misunderstand it, they would have had to hear it." He eventually secured a £700,000 settlement for Taylor.

• This article was amended on 21 July 2011 because the original said government proposals to curb contingency fee agreements (CFAs).